Who Was Queen Victoria's Father?

Queen Victoria's father Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn. 

Image: Wikipedia. Public Domain.

The House of Hanover's Prince Edward Augustus

Queen Victoria’s father, Edward Augustus, was King George III (1738-1820) and Charlotte of Mecklenberg-Strelitz’s (1744-1818) fourth son and fifth child. He was born on the 2nd November 1767 at Queen's House, now Buckingham Palace, and he was named after the king’s recently deceased brother, Edward Augustus, Duke of York and Albany (1739-1767.) He was baptised on the 30th November 1767.

As a younger royal son, Edward was destined to pursue a military career. His training began in 1785 as a cadet in the Hanoverian Guard. He was accompanied by his tutor, the “mercenary tyrant” Lieutenant Colonel Baron von Wangenheim, as he studied in Lüneburg, Hanover and Geneva.

In Geneva, Edward fathered an illegitimate daughter, Adelaide Victoria Augusta Dubus, born in December 1789. Her mother, Adelaide Dubus, died in childbirth. The baby was to be raised by her maternal aunt, Victoire. Edward promised to pay fifty guineas per annum for his daughter’s care. Adelaide died in 1790, but the Prince’s household paid an allowance to Victoire until her 1832 death. Although Victoire declined to become his mistress, Edward fathered a son named Edward (1789-1853) by Anne Gabrielle Alexandrine Moré.

Disgrace, Julie de Saint-Laurent and Canada

As well as creating two children, Edward became a Colonel with the 7th Regiment of Foot (Royal Fusiliers) in the British Army in 1789. Unwisely, he decided to take a holiday without obtaining permission, and he was duly punished. George III ensured that Edward’s rank was reduced and he was transferred to Gibraltar. Edward was not permitted to return to England until 1798, when he had sustained a riding injury and needed somewhere to convalesce.

Edward had met his long-term mistress, Madame Alphonsine-Thérèse-Bernadine-Julie de Mongenêt de Saint-Laurent, known as Julie, the wife of French Colonel Baron de Fortission, in Geneva. She was seven years older than Edward and an attractive, petite and dark-haired vision. He was smitten. Julie secretly travelled to Gibraltar with him.

Edward did not cope with the soaring temperatures, and he requested a transfer. Canada was suggested. The king, aware of Julie’s presence in Edward’s life, hoped that this would end their relationship. He was mistaken. Edward and Julie arrived in Quebec, Canada, in August 1791. He introduced her as a widow. Edward was stationed at the Royal Navy's North American Station in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as a Major-General.

Edward was the first member of the British royal family to visit Upper Canada. On the 27th June 1792, he invented the term Canadian whilst asking for concord between rioting French and English immigrants in Charlesbourg, Quebec. Edward was also the first Prince of Great Britain to enter America after its independence when he visited Boston in 1794.

The Duke of Kent and Strathearn

Edward returned to Britain in the autumn of 1798, and on 23rd April 1799 (St. George’s Day), he was created the Duke of Kent and Strathearn and the Earl of Dublin. With these titles, he also received a useful increase in his allowance to £12000 per annum. That May he was promoted to General, and he briefly became the Commander In Chief of British Forces in North America.

In May 1802, the British War Office appointed Edward as the Governor of Gibraltar. The soldiers there mutinied on Christmas Eve 1802. As Sir Spencer Walpole commented, Edward "was unpopular among his troops; and the storm which was created by his well-intentioned effort at Gibraltar to check the licentiousness and drunkenness of the garrison compelled him finally to retire from the governorship of this colony." Actually, his second eldest brother Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (1763-1827), was Commander in Chief of the British Army, and he made the awkward decision to allow Edward to continue to hold the title of Governor, but he was instructed never to visit the country again under any circumstances.

Edward acted as an Honorary Colonel of the 1st Regiment of Foot (The Royal Scots) until his death, but his active military career ended in Gibraltar. In September 1805, he became the Ranger of Hampton Court Park, and he took possession of The Pavilion, the home that accompanied the role. Edward and Julie moved to Brussels in Belgium in 1815 because Britain was too expensive for their lifestyle.

The Royal Baby Race

When Princess Charlotte of Wales (1796-1817) and her son passed away in November 1817 during a protracted birth, Edward and his brothers were told that their duty was to produce at least one legitimate heir between them so that the Hanoverian dynasty would not die out. To fulfil his role in the "royal baby race" he reluctantly separated from Julie after 28 years together. She was devastated. Unproven claims that Edward and Julie had married in Quebec and had children were always refuted by Queen Victoria.

Julie read in a newspaper at breakfast one day that Edward was engaged. She became hysterical but publicly acted with great dignity. Her only request was for a portrait of Edward to remember him by. She spent the remainder of her life in Paris, France. He paid her an annuity until his death. The French King Louis XVIII (1755-1824) gave her the title of Comtesse de Montgenêt. She died in August 1830.

Queen Victoria's Parents

Edward’s bride was Princess Marie Louise Victoire, known as Victoire, of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1786-1861.) She was the widow of Emich Carl, 2nd Prince of Leiningen and she had a son and daughter from this marriage. They married on 29th May 1818 at the Schloss Ehrenburg in Coburg in a Lutheran ceremony and a Church of England ceremony was carried out at Kew Palace on the 11th July 1818. To economise, the newlyweds made their home in Victoire's dower house, Amorbach Castle in Germany. Victoire fell pregnant in the late summer of 1818. They were determined that their child would be born on British soil. She was: Alexandrina Victoria of Kent arrived on the 24th May 1819 at Kensington Palace, London.

Edward died on 23rd January 1820, just six days before his father, at the unfortunately damp Woolbrook Cottage in Devon, when his severe cold developed into pneumonia. He was buried at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. Victoire survived him by forty-one years. His daughter, then known as Drina, was less than a year old.

Sources

• Queen Victoria’s first Holiday in Devon | British Heritage
• Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duchess of Kent | Unofficial Royalty

• Prince Edward, Duke of Kent | Unofficial Royalty

• Edward Augustus, duke of Kent and Strathern | British military officer | Britannica
• Biography | Montgenet, Therese-Bernadine | Volume VI (1821-1835)

• Earls and Dukes of Kent - 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

  
  

Sir Thomas Bloodworth and the Great Fire of London: Villain or Scapegoat?

 

The Great Fire of London. Ludgate and St. Paul's. 

Image: Wikipedia. Public Domain.

The Spark of the Great Fire of London

The summer of 1666 was so hot in England that the earth was scorched, and wood and straw were tinder dry. The disaster that became known forever as the Great Fire of London was triggered during the early hours of the 2nd of September at Thomas Farriner's (c.1615-1670) bakehouse on Pudding Lane. A flying spark from the bread oven may have appeared commonplace and dismissible, but the forgotten spark turned into a fire after Farriner went to bed. Smelling smoke, the family escaped, but an employee was lost to the flames.

The fire spread slowly at first until the wind grew stronger. Its acceleration through the city’s timber and tar structures in a warren of narrow streets with overhanging roofs left the city dwellers in great danger.

Sir Thomas Bloodworth, Mayor of London's Tragic Misjudgment

In his house on Gracechurch Street, the wealthy merchant, Mayor of London and member of parliament for Southwark, Sir Thomas Bloodworth or Bludworth (1620-1682,) born Thomas Bildward, was awoken by his servant and told of a fire. His approval was required to pull down some properties to halt the progress of the travelling flames. His response that night has damned him in history. He refused to allow any buildings to be pulled down and claimed that the blaze was insignificant enough that, "Pish, a woman might **ss it out."

Whilst Bloodworth wouldn’t permit the destruction of the buildings, and the aldermen of the city were against him allowing it, he was also bound by protocol. He couldn’t approve demolition without Charles II’s (1630-1685) permission, and presumably, no one, Bloodworth included, decided that the fire was serious enough to wake the king of the realm. If Bloodworth had made the decision to destroy property before consulting the king, he would have been liable for the cost of rebuilding.

Bloodworth and the aldermen were not alone in underestimating the fire. Naval clerk and diarist Samuel Pepys went back to bed after being awoken at 3 a.m. by his servant to view the fire, and, unmoved by the scene, he went back to bed and rose at 7 a.m. to realise his error.

75% of London Swallowed by Flames

Bloodworth was blamed for the fire’s extensive destruction. Approximately 75% of London burned throughout the four days and three nights of fire. It was acerbically commented when parliament met to discuss the damage that the mayor took quick action to fight the fire by adding the contents of his chamber pot to the effort.

In the 21st century, we have the benefit of hindsight, but if only the Mayor of London had been bold and broken the rules, perceiving the potential damage to the rest of the city, history might have recorded that he was the hero and not the villain of the event.

As many Londoners formed into chains, passing buckets of water from the River Thames to vanquish the flames and set to work on demolishing buildings in the fire’s path, others fled to the safety of the fields surrounding the city. They had a harrowing view. The fire could be seen over thirty miles away.

The merchants based around St. Paul's Cathedral threw their stock and valuable items into the vaults of the cathedral to safeguard them, but St. Paul’s was lost above ground, and its vaults suffered fire damage which is still visible today to the few allowed to enter the vaults.

Warehouses and timber stored for the forthcoming winter were greedily consumed by the flames. Samuel Pepys famously and ingeniously buried his cheese in his garden to save the expensive delicacy. The mayor was faced with a personal crisis. His house was consumed by the fire. The rescue efforts across London could not match the fire’s intensity.

Royal Firefighters Join the Rescue Efforts

From Samuel Pepys' Diary: “The king command him [Bloodworth] to spare no houses, but to pull down before the fire every way. The Duke of York bid me tell him that if he would have any more soldiers he shall ...” Pepys found Bloodworth in Cannon Street and informed him of the king and duke’s instructions. “... he cried, like a fainting woman, ‘Lord, what can I do? I am spent: people will not obey me. I have been pulling down houses, but the fire overtakes us faster than we can do it.’”

Pepys later referred to the mayor as “a silly man, I think,” and “a very weak man.” As his diaries have been a primary source of information from the era, Bloodworth may never be free/ of ignominy.

King Charles II and James, Duke of York (1631-1701) earned admiration when they didn't flee the city for a safe refuge but instead took control of the firefighting, gathered food for the people, and were seen working side by side with the population of London. The king laboured for over thirty hours without taking a break. On the 3^rd of September, Pepys wrote of the mile-long blaze, “It made me weep to see it …”

The Aftermath of the Great Fire of London

As the wind fell, the fire lost its fervour. By its conclusion, the Great Fire of London had destroyed over thirteen thousand houses and eighty-five churches, part of London Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and approximately fifty city company halls. The official death toll was low, estimated as sixteen people, perhaps less. Charles II started a relief fund for the victims.

Bloodworth asked his influential friends to spread the word that he was not in disgrace with the king and that he had acted well throughout the Great Fire of London. A Frenchman named Robert Hubert confessed to setting the fire which we know was a false confession. He wasn't in London when the fire began. However, he was hanged. The people needed someone to blame for their misfortune, and he was cast as a convenient scapegoat.

An official enquiry concluded in January of 1667 that “... nothing hath yet been found to argue it to have been other than the hand of God upon us, a great wind, and the season so very dry.” The memorial monument took six years to build from 1671 and it remains at Monument Street and Fish Street Hill in the City of London. Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) wished to erect a statue with Charles at the top but the king dismissed this idea by saying, “I did not start the fire.”

An Inglorious End

Bloodworth continued his career as a politician, but he did not enjoy popularity. Charles II’s close advisor Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (1621-1683), allegedly called him “thrice vile.” During the Popish Plot of 1678, in which fear of Catholic uprisings and Charles II’s assassination escalated, Titus Oates (1649-1705) spectacularly accused James, Duke of York, of ordering the fire of 1666 for the good of Catholics and said that Bloodworth, as his agent, secured the destruction of most of London for him.

Sir Thomas Bloodworth died in Leatherhead, Surrey, in May 1682. He was 62 years old. His initial words about the fire have long survived him.

Sources

• Sir Thomas Bludworth (Lord Mayor 1665-6) |The Diary of Samuel Pepys
  
• Bludworth, Thomas (1620-82) | History of Parliament Online
  
• https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/great-fire-of-london/

Who Invented Ice Cream?

Ice cream is a much older invention than you might think. 

Image: Pixabay. Public Domain.

The Persian Origins of Ice Cream

Ice cream must be a relatively recent invention, surely? How could you make and store frozen milk and cream in a time when freezers and electricity weren't even on the distant horizon?

You may be surprised to learn that the first ice creams were invented in Persia in or around 550 BC, that's during the late Bronze Age and in modern-day Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria and Turkey.

The concoction proved popular, and it travelled around the globe and down the centuries. Today, ice cream is a $73.6 billion industry in the U.S.A. and £519.2 million or $667 million in the U.K. (Sources: Forbes/Ibis World).

The Persian people constructed ice houses and ice pits along the route of the Euphrates River, and these were filled with snow that fell during sub-zero winters. Their ice creams, sorbets and falooda (vermicelli noodles) remained cold in the oppressive summer conditions. Ice cream was always consumed within hours of its creation.

The Science of Ice Cream: An Exothermic Reaction

In the 13th century, there was a wonderful scientific discovery. When ice and salt were combined, the two substances created an exothermic reaction, the release of heat as the molecules moved.

The salt lowered the freezing point of the milk or cream below the freezing temperature of water. The ice pulled the heat away from the liquid, and the movement of the molecules in the liquid created air. Ice crystals attached to the milk or cream fats to become a foam.

More air resulted in smoother ice cream; today's ice creams are classed as emulsions. All ice creams have an exothermic brine (water and salt), a chosen liquid and a flavouring.

Ice Cream Myths and Italian Pharmacists

There's a legend but no proof that the explorer and merchant Marco Polo discovered ice cream in China in the late 13th or early 14th century and that he introduced it to Europe.

Another unproven claim, courtesy of the Victorians, involved Catherine de Medici. It was said that she took ice cream from her native Florence to Paris when she married the future King Henry II of France in 1633.

There's no evidence that around the same time, King Charles I in England ate "cream ice" during his reign.

During the 1600s, Italian pharmacists utilised the ice cream salt and water chemical reaction as a party trick to impress their customers. A resident of Naples took it a step further, and he made a tasty offering in the 1660s.

Antiquary and politician Elias Ashmole recorded that Britain's King Charles II dined on strawberries and "one bowl of ice cream" at a banquet at Windsor Castle in 1671. The ice cream was only consumed at the top table.

Ice Cream Arrives in the U.S.A.

The Europeans took ice cream to the Americas. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), Minister to France prior to becoming President of the U.S.A., favoured the French-style ice cream that he'd enjoyed in Paris. French chefs used egg yolks to create a custard base for the ice cream.

In the Victorian era, the uptake of mechanical ice cream makers, normally a metal drum in a wooden tub with a handle that turned and mixed the concoction, increased. The U.S.A. and Canada received demands for more and more ice from the ice-cream-loving Europeans.

Ice cream cups were first patented in the U.S.A. during the 1880s, and the ice cream sundae was invented in the mid-west in 1881, although the inventor's identity soon became a matter of dispute.

The waffle cone was first presented with ice cream at the 1904 St. Louis World Fair, and during prohibition in the U.S.A., the lack of refreshing drinks led to a surge in ice cream consumption.

Currently, there are over one thousand ice cream flavours in the world. According to the U.K. Ice Cream Alliance, most flavours that are presented as new inventions today were actually made in the past.

National Ice Cream Day and World Ice Cream Day occur each July on the third Sunday of the month. 

Learn about the history of champagne here.

Discover the 4000 year history of chocolate here.

Sources

• Ice cream | Definition, History, & Production | Britannica
  
• History of Ice Cream - Ice Cream Alliance
  
• Who Invented Ice Cream? | HISTORY
  
  

Vlad the Impaler: The Legendary Killer of Over 80,000 People

 

Vlad the Impaler, dining,  surrounded by his impaled victims. 

Image: Wikipedia, from a 1499 woodcut. Public Domain.

The House of Draculesti

The brutal Vlad the Impaler, believed to be the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, was born in Sighisoara, Transylvania (today’s Romania) in 1431. He was part of the Draculesti dynasty.

Vlad was the 2nd son of Vlad II Dracul and Eupraxia of Moldavia. The addition of an "a" to his surname denoted that he was Vlad II’s son. Draco meant dragon and Vlad II Dracul was a member of the Order of the Dragon. In modern Romanian “drac” means devil.

Even by medieval standards Transylvania and its neighbours were violent. It was a prime territory between the European countries that fought to maintain Christianity and the Ottomans who sought land gains and to increase the spread of the Islamic faith.

Vlad II Dracul was appointed as the ruler or voivode of the Principality of Wallachia when his son Vlad was five years old. The family relocated to Targoviste. 

Ottoman Sultan Murad II Holds Vlad Hostage

In 1442 Vlad and his younger brother Radu travelled to the Ottoman court with their father. Sultan Murad II craftily used the boys as collateral after discussions with Vlad II Dracul. The Sultan arrested his guests because he wanted to ensure that the Voivode of Wallachia fulfilled his promises of allegiance. Vlad II was released and sent back to Wallachia but his sons remained with Murad II and his son Mehmed for almost six years.

The boys were educated in philosophy and science and were taught how to be warriors and capable horsemen. However, Vlad and Radu were also under constant threat from the Sultan’s whims and tortured. It was probably at the Ottoman court that Vlad first saw people being impaled on stakes. This was a device he used with devastating effects later in his life.

In 1447 Vlad II Dracul and his eldest son Mircea II were assassinated by rebel Wallachian nobles called boyars. The father’s life ended in the swamps of Balteni and Mircea; he was tortured, blinded and buried alive.

Vlad the Impaler: Voivode of Wallachia

Vlad returned to Wallachia and tried to claim leadership as Voivode Vlad III Dracula (Vlad III Draculea in Romanian). Unfortunately for Vlad, his younger brother Radu, the boyars and the Sultan opposed him. After a troubled two-month rule, Vlad III Dracula was deposed. It took him eight years to regain control.

Throughout his second period as Voivode of Wallachia Vlad showed little, if any, mercy towards his enemies and he earned the sobriquet of Vlad the Impaler, Vlad Tepes in Romanian.

He favoured impaling his foes on wooden stakes rising from the ground. The victim was impaled through the rectum and the stake came out through the mouth or neck. Vlad left the impaled bodies on the stakes during a torturous death and as lifeless corpses. Some of the stakes he used were not sharply tipped; this was a way of prolonging the agony rather than diminishing the suffering. A blunt stake didn’t puncture the vital organs and so the impaled person took longer to die.

Vlad III Dracula Leaves Over 80,000 Dead

He did not limit impalement to domestic enemies. His international opponents were just as likely to find themselves impaled and staring up to the sky screaming as their lives ebbed away. There were unconfirmed reports that Vlad liked to dip bread in the blood of his dying victims and eat the morsels as they watched.

In 1453 the Ottomans took control of the important city of Constantinople and in the following years, they tried to invade several European countries to get further inland. A story emerged that Sultan Mehmed II was so repulsed by the sight of 20,000 impaled and decaying corpses outside the city of Targoviste that he rode back to Constantinople instead of engaging in battle.

Vlad the Impaler's success in creating order in Wallachia was seen as positive by contemporaries but his rule was undeniably one of carnage. Over 80,000 people—men, women, children, soldiers, peasants and nobles (including his rival from the House of Danesti, Vladislav II)—were not safe from his butchery.

One horrendous example of his barbarity was the invitation that he issued to the boyars of Wallachia to dine with him. He had each one of his guests stabbed and then thrust onto a stake to die painfully.

Capture and Imprisonment: 1462-1475

In 1462 Vlad the Impaler left an entire battlefield littered with bodies impaled on stakes as a warning to advancing Ottoman soldiers. He was said to have dined among the bodies before he departed.

The same year Vlad was only saved from capture by the Ottoman army by the Hungarians who he thought were allies. Their ruler Matthias Corvinus I of Hungary decided to lock Vlad up. Matthias then arranged marriages for his prisoner.

Vlad’s first wife’s identity remains unconfirmed but she may have been an illegitimate sister of the Hungarian king. She died in circa 1473. His second wife was Justina Szilagyi, a cousin of Matthais I; they married in 1475.

The Russian ambassador Fyodor Kuritsyn wrote that Vlad had three sons but by whom is disputed.

Vlad the Impaler Beheaded

In 1476 Vlad III Dracula was released by Matthias I and he managed to reclaim power in Wallachia. His victory was short-lived. He was killed in battle near Bucharest on the 14th of December 1476. After he was unceremoniously beheaded his head was sent to Sultan Mehmed II and displayed.

Vlad’s successor was his younger brother Radu, known as Radu III cel Frumos (the handsome). His reign was just as fleeting; he died aged 36 or 37 the following year. The Danesti dynasty took control of Wallachia. The Sultan died four years later, possibly poisoned.

Whatever other achievements Vlad III Dracula, Voivode of Wallachia made during his three terms as leader he will forever be remembered for his barbarity.

His female counterpart was the chilling Elisabeth Bathory. 

Sources

• Transylvania | Location & History | Britannica
  
• Vlad the Impaler: The real Dracula was absolutely vicious
  
• Vlad the Impaler | Biography, Dracula, Death, & Facts | Britannica
  
• Dracula | Summary, Characters, & Facts | Britannica

Arthur, Prince of Wales: Tudor King Henry VIII's Older Brother Was Never King

 

Arthur, Prince of Wales, son of Tudor king Henry VII and brother of Henry VIII. 

Image: Wikipedia. Public Domain.

Prince Arthur Born in Winchester: King Arthur's Camelot

Tudor monarch Henry VII and his wife Elizabeth of York united England after the 15th-century civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses. Henry, as Earl of Richmond, won the crown from Richard III on 22nd August 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

He was the Lancastrian half-nephew of King Henry VI. She was the daughter of the House of York's King Edward IV, the sister of Edward V (who, with his brother Richard, was one of the "Princes in the Tower"), and the niece of Richard III.

Arthur was born nine months after their wedding at just after midnight on 20th September 1486 in Winchester, Hampshire. Winchester was the site of the mythical King Arthur's Camelot. The Tudor Arthur's birth heralded a new Arthurian era in his father's eyes. Four days later, he was christened at Winchester Cathedral.

The royal nursery was managed by Elizabeth, Lady Darcy, and two bishops guided the king regarding Arthur's upbringing. Over the next seventeen years, six siblings were born, but three died in infancy. Elizabeth of York died in 1503 after childbirth.

Ludlow Castle: The Prince of Wales' Seat

Arthur was made Prince of Wales in 1489, and three years later, he was given his own household at Ludlow Castle in Shropshire, close to the Welsh border. He was well aware of what was expected of him as a future king carrying his father's wishes, and he was quick to learn. Arthur impressed his tutors John Rede and Thomas Linacre and the poet Bernard Andre.

Before Arthur's third birthday, he was betrothed to Catherine of Aragon, who was just nine months older than him. The Treaty of Medina del Campo was a contract signed in 1489 and 1490 by Henry VII and Spain's first monarchs Catherine's parents Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castille. Within the treaty, the marriage of Arthur and Catherine was agreed upon.

As their childhood years passed, Arthur and Catherine wrote perfectly polite letters to one another. They were strangers. Fifteen-year-old Catherine left Spain on 1st November 1501; she never saw her homeland again. Three days later, she arrived in England to start her new life, and this was the first time that Catherine and Arthur met. Their in-person courtship lasted for ten days.

Arthur and Catherine of Aragon: Teenage Newlyweds

Arthur, Prince of Wales and Catherine married on 14th November 1501 at the original St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Catherine was escorted to the cathedral by her future brother-in-law and husband, Henry, Duke of York, later King Henry VIII.

Henry VII dreamed of the second Arthurian age and an abundance of little Tudors to secure the dynasty's longevity. There has been a great deal of debate over the last five hundred years about whether Arthur and Catherine ever consummated their marriage.

Their attendants placed them in bed together on their wedding night during the bedding ceremony, and the following morning, Arthur brightly asked them to "bring me a cup of ale for I have been this night in the midst of Spain!" but did they or didn't they? Catherine later claimed they did not. Ever.

From Christmas 1501, Arthur and Catherine resided at Ludlow Castle so that Arthur, Prince of Wales, President of the Council of Wales and the Marches, could continue to fulfil his duties.

The following spring, Arthur and Catherine fell ill. Catherine survived, but the sweating sickness or possibly tuberculosis claimed Arthur on 2nd April 1502. The hope of a second Arthurian era died with him. He was buried at Worcester Cathedral.

Henry VIII: The 'Did They or Didn't They?' Question Resurfaces in the 1520s

Catherine remained in England, devastated but shrewd. Henry VII managed to keep Catherine's dowry and negotiate a marriage between Catherine and Henry, the new Prince of Wales. When Henry VII lost Elizabeth of York in 1503, he mulled over a union between himself and Catherine before he dismissed the notion, according to Thomas Penn in the Winter King. In 1509 Catherine became the first of the six infamous wives of King Henry VIII.

The question of whether Catherine and Arthur's marriage was consummated became significant to Henry VIII in the late 1520s and early 1530s. He decided that his brother and sister-in-law turned wife must have slept together. This was a convenient conclusion; Catherine swore until her dying day that they didn't, but Henry wanted a son and heir, and Catherine was nudging towards middle age. The king wanted a new marriage that might give him his heir, and Anne Boleyn was waiting in the wings to displace Catherine.

Catherine of Aragon Banished in 1533

Henry petitioned the Pope, citing the fact that he had lain with his brother's wife, and this was against the Bible's teaching if the earlier marriage had been consummated, which he believed had occurred. That was obviously why God was not allowing Henry and Catherine to have a healthy son. Mary, later Mary I, was their only surviving child. The Pope did not oblige Henry, so Henry created the Church of England, and he was excommunicated.

Elizabeth I was the surviving child of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn's three-year-long union. Anne's "failure" to bear a son was explained equally conveniently by calling her a witch. Catherine of Aragon died on 7th January 1536 of natural causes, and Anne was beheaded on 19th May 1536. Henry died on 28th January 1547.

Sources

• House of Tudor | Arthur Prince of Wales
  
• Arthur, Prince of Wales - The Tudor Society
  
• Arthur, Prince of Wales | Unofficial Royalty

Queen Victoria and the 1839 Lady Flora Hastings Scandal

Queen Victoria's victim Lady Flora Hastings. Image: Wikipedia. Public Domain.

Young Queen Victoria's Error Of Judgement

One of Queen Victoria's worst errors of judgement occurred in 1839, two years into her long reign, and it was widely written about and talked of. The queen would have preferred that it was scratched from the public record.

The Lady Flora Hastings scandal rocked the throne and Victoria was lucky to survive the public backlash; her subjects felt that their queen should have behaved better throughout, disregarded her personal prejudices and received wiser counsel from her Prime Minister William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne.

Victoire, Duchess of Kent and Sir John Conroy

Installed in 1834, one of Victoire, Duchess of Kent's ladies-in-waiting was Lady Flora Elizabeth Rawdon-Hastings, the daughter of the 1st Marquess of Hastings. As a member of the duchess’ household positioned at the far end of Buckingham Palace, Flora worked closely with the "devil incarnate" Sir John Conroy, ambitious comptroller of the household who had manipulated and ruled over Victoire, played on her fears and driven a wedge between mother and daughter.

Conroy had envisaged himself as the future power behind the throne, controlling Victoire and Victoria, if the latter ascended the throne before her 18th birthday and needed a regency. His aspirations for this were thwarted but Victoria could not banish him from her mother's side. The duchess trusted him as her only true friend.

Victoria viewed Flora as an integral part of the enemy camp. In early 1839 it was noticed that Flora, unmarried and so far untarnished by any sort of scandal, was suffering from a swollen abdomen and nausea. Rumours flew around the court that she must be pregnant with Sir John Conroy’s child. Victoria seized on them.

Queen Victoria's Prejudice Prevails

Queen Victoria used poor judgement when she decided that Flora must be vilified. Flora had had the audacity to dislike Victoria's beloved "Daisy" otherwise known as Baroness Lehzen, governess and advisor to the young royal. She was also not fond of "Dear Lord M." or Lord Melbourne.

Flora was complicit in Sir John Conroy's implementation and management of the Kensington System, the measures put in place to ensure Victoria's safety against rival influences and cousins in line to the throne during her childhood and adolescence.

Victoria had often been lonely and was bullied by Conroy as he manipulated Victoire into restricting her daughter's activities. So, given that Flora was one of Sir John's allies and as her abdomen swelled and she was nauseous, it seemed perfectly reasonable to Victoria that Flora was guilty as charged. Victoria even wrote of the "child" being Sir John Conroy's in her journal.

Sir James Clark, Physician-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria made inquiries and tried to physically examine Flora. She refused. What other proof could possibly be required?

The Hastings and Conroys Bring the Press Into the Scandal

Queen Victoria, Prime Minister Lord Melbourne, Sir James Clark, Baroness Lehzen, the Marchioness of Tavistock and the majority of the Whig (liberal) politicians and the court gossips readily accepted that Flora was with child. There could be no other explanation and there was little mercy shown in their conduct towards her.

Meanwhile, the Tory (conservative) politicians, the Hastings and Conroy families mounted a counter-campaign in the popular press declaiming the rumours and saying that Flora was being victimised. This fightback against royal derision swayed public opinion against Victoria, Dr. Clark and Lord Melbourne. In The Examiner's article, Baroness Lehzen was not named but was alluded to as a leading detractor.

Flora's Privacy Invaded to Prove Her Innocence

The public sympathy rested with Lady Flora; no one knew for certain why she was swelling around the abdomen but weren't Victoria, Lehzen, Melbourne and Clark prejudiced against her because of her association with the Duchess of Kent and Sir John Conroy? It didn't seem like fair play, a terribly important thing to the British.

Flora was pressured into permitting a medical examination by Clark who told her about the queen's insistence that Flora, shamed as she was, should marry someone suitable and amenable quietly to save the family honour and make her child legitimate. The Duchess of Kent was not included in the discussions held by Victoria and her coterie about Flora's future.

Flora was banned from court until she submitted to the examination. During the painful and roughly handled checks, she was found to be a virgin, just as she and her family had maintained. This was the confirmation that the Hastings and Conroy families were awaiting eagerly and that Victoria's camp dreaded.

Lady Flora's True State of Health

Victoria was in grave trouble with her people and her mother who had believed unwaveringly in Flora's innocence. A penitent Queen Victoria visited Flora to make an apology and ultimately peace with her maligned enemy. Flora accepted the queen's apology but asked that she be the last of the Hastings to receive such a lack of justice. She was, after all, found guilty without a trial or reason.

Flora had a tumour growing on her liver which steadily distorted her abdomen. Far from bringing a life into the world, she was in the final stages of her own at the age of 33 years old. Queen Victoria visited her for the last time on the 27th June 1839.

Lady Flora Hastings passed away on the 5th July 1839. She was mourned widely. Victoria was more unpopular than at any time in her reign thus far. She was haunted by the scandal, suffered nightmares and vowed never to repeat her behaviour.

Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert in early 1840 restored goodwill towards her. She and Albert worked hard to present the image of an irreproachable royal family.

Sources

• Lady Flora Hastings, Lady-in-Waiting to The Duchess of Kent, Queen Victoria’s mother | UR
  
• Lady Flora Hastings – British aristocrat | Britannica
  
• Queen Victoria & The Lady Flora Hastings Scandal | History of Royal Women
  

Elizabethan Makeup: Death by Cosmetics

Queen Elizabeth I unwittingly courted death by using dangerous Tudor cosmetics.

Image: Wikipedia. Public Domain.

16th-Century Makeup to Die For (Literally)

Cosmetics is an area that has seen a great deal of development since its first known uses in 4000 B.C. Our Elizabethan ancestors utilised ingredients that would make 21st-century consumers shudder, including tin ash, cochineal or dead beetles, belladonna, mercury, vinegar and white lead.

During the Elizabethan era of 1558–1603, under Elizabeth I, the flame-haired daughter of Henry VIII, these components were cosmetics essentials for genteel women and men.

Queen Elizabeth I’s liberal applications to her skin of a white lead and vinegar mixture called Spirits of Saturn, also known as Venetian Ceruse, helped to define her era. This trend wasn’t her invention; pale skin was seen as a sign of wealth, nobility and good health in the 16th century. The ideal was already formed and, as ever, fuelled by an unrealistic vision that made for lucrative business.

What was “beautiful” during Elizabeth I’s reign?

1. Alabaster skin, as white as possible on the face, neck, arms, hands and a woman’s décolletage

2. Wide eyes with dilated pupils

3. Rosy cheeks

4. Red lips

5. High-arching eyebrows

6. Golden hair

Society Follows the Queen of Cosmetics

Elizabeth’s courtiers and imitators keenly copied the look. Creating an unnatural whiteness to the skin was not only a female device, because fashionable males were just as happy to daub lead and vinegar over their skin. Tin ash and sulphur also provided the desired results.

The poor were spared from the side effects of Elizabethan beauty practices; they were too expensive for all but the highborn. The lead and vinegar-free skin of paupers was tanned from working outdoors, but at least it wasn’t being poisoned.

“The Virgin Queen” partly earned this moniker because of the white skin she exhibited. The red shades of the accompanying rouge and lip paints were unsubtle, gaudy and just as thickly applied as the Spirits of Saturn.

Elizabeth I had another motive for using make-up. Her smallpox scars and any wrinkles that formed as the mighty Gloriana grew older were flaws she had no wish to advertise.

Spirits of Saturn or Venetian Ceruse’s Dangers

You don’t need to be a world-class scientist to realise that lead and the skin shouldn’t mix. The elite Elizabethans and the acting fraternity that used the mixture didn’t realise they were slowly killing themselves. Most wearers of Spirits of Saturn or Venetian Ceruse believed that their skin was softer, and the association with side effects was not made.

If anyone did suspect a link, they did not speak out; instead, they overlooked the resulting pockmarks and discolouration caused by a lack of oxygen to the skin. Lead poisoning was widespread. If you were lucky, you only suffered from pocks, greying skin and permanent hair loss, but the unluckiest advocates died. Lead poisoning eventually earned an additional name: saturnism.

The Elizabethan Face: Poisons and Drastic Measures

• Belladonna means “beautiful woman”, and it is also known as Deadly Nightshade, a poisonous plant. It was used in eye drops to dilate the pupils and give an allegedly seductive look.
• A common way to achieve a dark frame around the Elizabethan eyes was to apply antimony, a grey metalloid often found as stibnite, a mineral. The Arabic word for this was kohl; one of the make-up staples that has survived the centuries.
• Animal and plant-based dyes offered the wearer a rosy glow and red lips. The 16th-century woman accepted the regular use of crushed beetles in lip paint and rouge. Alternatives were the pigment vermillion and madder, a reddish-brown powder often mixed with egg whites. The reds were not subtle, but set against the stark white face, they were highly desirable.
• The perfect hair colour was golden to golden-red. Of course, that natural gift was a lottery of genes, but it could be achieved with saffron, celandine and oil solutions rubbed into the hair. The low-maintenance alternative was to wear wigs. For this practice, it was not uncommon for a person, male or female, to shave their head because it helped the wig to sit perfectly.
• Eyebrows were not bushy. They were heavily plucked in high arcs that made the forehead appear broader. The greater the arc, the higher the position in society seems to have been a driving force in this trend.
• Men’s beards were starched, and their hair, if long, was made curly and waxed.

Elizabethans would have found daily makeup removal preposterous. It took several hours to produce and apply the cosmetics. Hence, they kept them on for at least a week before washing with lemon juice, rosewater or a solution of egg shells, mercury, honey and a mix of potassium and aluminium called alum.

Mercury could have blinded, incapacitated or killed them if the lead application hadn’t already achieved the fatal result. Alum may have resulted in hair loss, just as the lead could have.

When Elizabeth died in 1603, the Elizabethan ideal was forsaken. A new reign brought with it fresh ideas. The Stuart era favoured the heavy jowled and more naturally coloured visage.

Of course, today, we wouldn't think of using a possible poison for beauty purposes. We wouldn't be that naive. On second thought, welcome to the world of botox. 

Will our descendants be appalled by our beauty practices and ingredients?

Sources

• Elizabethan Make-Up | The Elizabethan Era | Stronghold Nation
  
• Elizabethan Era Make-up of Face, Eyes | Elizabethan Beauty Facts
  
• Beauty During The Elizabethan Times

European Historical Figures: The Bizarre King Zog of Albania

King Zog I of Albania. Image: Wikipedia. Public Domain.

 

From Son of the Ottoman Empire to King of Albania

President Zogu, King Zog I of Albania, was born Ahmed Muhtar Bey Zogolli of the House of Zogu on the 8th of October 1895 at Castle Burgajet in the north of the Ottoman Empire. He was the son of an Albanian chief (beylik) and landowner in the Mati region named Xhemal (Jamal) Pasha Zogolli and his second wife, the influential Sadije Toptani.

By creating the role of king for himself in Albania in 1928, Zogolli/Zogu became and remains the only European Muslim king in history. He ruled for eleven years. The Times newspaper referred to him as "The Bizarre King Zog." He invented his own distinctive salute and was as courteous as he was murderous and ambitious. Through his mismatched power alliance with Mussolini's Italy, he was forced to abdicate by his one-time champion in the lead-up to the Second World War.

President Zogu of Albania

During the First World War the old order had broken down and in 1918 Albania was under threat. Its neighbouring countries believed that Albanian lands should be subsumed into the newly developing powers that were once within the Ottoman Empire.

As a statesman using the name Ahmed Zogu he had supported Austria during the war and his political career and leadership of the Popular Party saw him serve in several rapidly formed governments in the early 1920s with a tenure as Prime Minister. He was exiled to Yugoslavia in June 1924.

Seven months later he returned to Albania with an army composed largely of mercenaries funded by several oil companies and Albania's powerful families. He declared himself to be the president on the 1st February 1925 although dictator was a far more appropriate title.

His presumption in taking over the country led to a staggering 50+ assassination attempts, all of which he survived, and his opponents were swiftly removed, often brutally. The systematic murders were, it was claimed, the only way to rule Albania effectively. He coped with the stress of ruling and butchering by chain-smoking and watching early Hollywood movies. Charlie Chaplin was a favourite.

King Zog I of Albania

Zogu realised that Albania required an international ally to prosper and modernise so he aligned himself with Benito Mussolini of Italy. Their military alliance ensured that the Albanians knew there was a far greater force behind their president. However, Italy imposed its might on Albania, dictating to the dictator Zogu.

With Mussolini's approval, Zogu the president elevated himself to King Zog I of Albania in 1928. The new constituent assembly's members were strictly vetted and complied with Zog and his government's visions.

His coronation was held on the 1st September 1928, but to ensure that Zog was not assassinated there were no spectators lining the route between the palace and the parliament house in Tirana. Instead, a multitude of Albanian flags was displayed on properties and in windows. The flags had been mass-produced in Italy for the occasion.

Zog swore on the Koran and the Bible during his coronation service and cries of "Long live the King" resonated throughout the capital. A six-day-long celebration followed.

His mother Sadije was installed as the Queen Mother and she supervised the royal kitchens so that her son could not be poisoned.

Mussolini Orders Zog's Exile

By 1932 Zog was concerned about Italy's hold over Albania; in the late 1930's they controlled the country's finances and military. Unfortunately for Zog, he had signed a 20-year agreement with Mussolini and that became effective and unbreakable in 1927.

On the 27th April 1938 Zog married Countess Géraldine Margit Virginia Olga Mária Apponyi de Nagy-Appony. She became Queen Consort of Albania but her reign in situ was short.

In 1939, as the Second World War drew closer, Mussolini had his own plan for Albania. namely to claim it as an Italian protectorate and to depose Zog. The smaller country didn't pose a significant threat in a David versus Goliath fight. Goliath (Italy) was sure to win. Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III became Albania's official ruler on the 7th April 1939.

Albanian Royalty?

Zog wandered off into exile and travelled around Europe, making temporary homes for himself, Geraldine and his son Crown Prince Leka (born on the 5th April 1939) as they roamed. Although Zog hoped to be reinstated after the war, a communist regime took control of Albania and he formally abdicated on the 2nd January 1946.

Zog died in France on the 9th April 1961. Geraldine survived him by 41 years.

Albanian royalists referred to Zog's son as Crown Prince Leka I and to his grandson as Crown Prince Leka Zogu II. Today the latter would be in the 11th year of his reign; instead he has a political career in Albania and has been an advisor to the prime minister.

Sources

• King Zog I of the Albanians | Unofficial Royalty
  
• Zog I – King of Albania | Britannica
  
• King Zog I of Albania | History Today